Chris Arpan Caps 8 Run Third with a Grand Slam to help Lead Pippins past Knights 13-6

Connor White was able to hold down the Knights on the mound and the Pippins offense provided more than enough early run support to lead the Pippins to a 13-6 win over Corvallis.

After a scoreless top of the first, the Pippin jumped on Knights starter Connor Redmond. Elijah Greene lead off with a walk and Cody Jefferis followed with a double to left field, scoring Greene all the way from first. After moving to third on a flyout, Kyle Dean sent a ball to center for a sacrifice fly, scoring another run. Later in the inning, Tyler Hollow knocked in Sam Mitchell who had reached on a hit by pitch. After the first, the Pippins had built a 3-0 lead.

Corvallis got a run back in the second. With runners at the corners and no outs, Beau Philip grounded into a double play which allowed Zak Taylor to score from third. The Pippins answered right back in the bottom half. Greene lead off with a double and was later knocked in on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Lasch.

In the third, the Knights had their first and only opportunity to take the lead. A walk and two singles loaded the bases for with two outs for Taylor who was able to draw a walk, scoring a run. With the bases still loaded, Austin Feist ripped a ball to third that was snagged by Lasch to keep the Pippins lead at 4-2.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Pippins offense exploded. After a leadoff single by Cam Campbell, Hollow knocked a double into left. Five of the next six batters would reach, pushing three more runs across, knocking out Redmond and setting up an opportunity for pinch hitter Chris Arpan to blow the game open. On a 1-2 pitch with the bases loaded, Arpan ripped a breaking ball off the top of the scoreboard in left field for a grand slam. It was Arpan's second pinch hit homerun in the last week and it extended the lead to 12-2.

"I got an off-speed pitch and I was looking through the previous at bats of the guys and with two strikes he was throwing off speed," Arpan said. "So I kind of just looked for that once I got to the 1-2 count and I tried to hit the ball hard."

The Pippins would pick up their final run in the fourth on an RBI single by Lasch.

White settled down after the third, pitching scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth, marking his longest outing of the season.

The bullpen took over in the sixth and ran into a little trouble. Corvallis pushed across three runs in the sixth off of Drew Hurst and grabbed another run in the seventh off of Kaleb Strawn. Strawn was able to strand the bases loaded and keep a seven run lead intact for the Pippins. Matt Driver shut down Corvallis over the final two innings to seal a 13-6 win over the Knights. The 13 runs scored by the Pippins is their second most runs scored in a game this season.

The Pippins have a chance to win their second straight series Thursday night against the Knights in the final game of the series. First pitch at 6:35.